Mongols

Examples of Mongols in the following topics:

• The Mongols in Eastern Europe

  • Under Ögedei, the Mongol Empire conquered Eastern Europe.
  • The Mongols have been credited for introducing gunpowder and associated weapons into Europe.
  • The Mongols continued to invade Central Europe with three armies.
  • It took a number of months for the Mongol army to subdue various power centers in Hungary.
  • This particular city defeated the Mongol army in 1242.

• Overview of the Mongol Empire

  • The Mongol Empire began in the Central Asian steppes and lasted throughout the 13th and 14th centuries.
  • Many additional countries became tributary states of the Mongol Empire.
  • The empire unified the nomadic Mongol and Turkic tribes of historical Mongolia under the leadership of Genghis Khan, who was proclaimed ruler of all Mongols in 1206.
  • Tatar and Mongol raids against Russian states continued well into the later 1200's.
  • In India, the Mongols' gains survived into the 19th century as the Mughal Empire.

• The Mongol Threat

  • The Mongol invasion of the Kievan Rus' principalities began in 1223 at the Battle of the Kalka River.
  • The Mongols began to expand their power across the continent.
  • However, the Mongol threat was far from over, and they returned in 1237.
  • All the major principalities, such as Novgorod, Smolensk, and Pskov, submitted to Mongol rule.
  • However, Rus’ principalities paid tribute and taxes to the Mongol rulers regularly, under the umbrella of the Golden Horde (the western portion of the Mongol Empire).

• Expansion Throughout Eastern Asia

  • Under Genghis Khan and his son Ögedei, the Mongol Empire conquered both the Western Xia Dynasty and the Jin Dynasty to the west.
  • Jin's army commander made a tactical mistake in not attacking the Mongols at the first opportunity.
  • Instead, he sent a messenger to Mongols.
  • Between 1232 CE and 1233 CE, Kaifeng fell to the Mongols under the reign of Genghis' third son, Ögedei Khan.
  • Recall the significance and consequences of the Mongol Empire's battles with the Western Xia and Jin Dynasties.

• Expansion Throughout Central and Western Asia

  • With Küchlüg's death, the Mongol Empire secured control over the Kara-Khitai and surrounding areas.
  • Generally speaking, Mongol forces would enslave or massacre populations after a victorious capture of a city or region, establishing a new rule of law and highlighting Mongol dominance.
  • During the invasion of Transoxania in 1219, along with the main Mongol force, Genghis Khan used a Chinese specialist catapult unit in battle, adding to the powerful tactics already in use by Mongol forces.
  • The Mongols conquered the areas today known as Iran, Iraq, Syria, Caucasus and parts of Turkey.
  • Further Mongol raids reached southwards as far as Gaza into the Palestine region in 1260 and 1300.

• Administrative Reform in the Mongol Empire

  • Möngke was generally a popular ruler of the Mongol Empire; he met debts, controlled spending, conducted a census, and protected civilians.
  • From Ögedei's death in 1241 CE until 1246 CE the Mongol Empire was ruled under the regency of Ögedei's widow, Töregene Khatun.
  • Paying out all debts drawn by high-rank Mongol elites to important foreign and local merchants.
  • Many Russian princes capitulated with Mongol rule and a relatively stable alliance existed in the 1250s in some principalities.
  • Möngke might have been present at this battle, which took place in the kingdom of Hungary, during one of the many Mongol invasions and attacks that expanded the Mongol Empire.

• Genghis Khan

  • In 1206, Temujin was crowned as the leader of the Great Mongol Nation.
  • He initially forged the Mongol Empire in Central Asia with the unification of the Mongol and Turkic confederations on the Mongolian plateau in 1206.
  • Then Mongol forces invaded westward into Central Asia including:
  • Any city or town that resisted the Mongols was subject to destruction.
  • He was the first leader of the unified Mongols and first emperor under the Mongolian Empire.

• Kublai Khan

  • However, Chinese forces ultimately overthrew the Mongols to form the Ming Dynasty.
  • With this success, the Mongols became the first non-Chinese people to conquer all of the Chinese territories.
  • However, the Yuan Dynasty often functioned as an independent khanate from the rest of the western Mongol-dominated regions.
  • Mongol records also list 20,166 public schools created during his reign.
  • Polo generally praised the wealth and extravagance of Khan and the Mongol Empire.

• Trade and Currency Under the Yuan

  • Mongol rule was cosmopolitan under Kublai Khan.
  • The Pax Mongolica (latin for Mongol Peace) is a historiographical term, modeled after the original phrase Pax Romana, which describes the stabilizing effects of the conquests of the Mongol Empire on the social, cultural, and economic life of the inhabitants of the vast Eurasian territory that the Mongols conquered in the 13th and 14th centuries, including the rule of China during Yuan dynasty.
  • Before the Mongols' rise, the Old World system consisted of isolated imperial systems.
  • The Mongols experimented with establishing the Chinese-style paper monetary system in Mongol-controlled territories outside of China.
  • In 1253, Möngke established a Department of Monetary affairs to control the issuance of paper money in order to eliminate the overissue of the currency by Mongol and non-Mongol nobles since the reign of Great Khan Ögedei.

• The Mongal Invasions

  • The Rise of Kublai Khan and the the Mongol Invasions of China
  • He and his successors expanded the Mongol empire across Asia.
  • He granted his brother Kublai control over Mongol held territories in China.
  • Civil strife had permanently divided the Mongol Empire.
  • Connect the Mongol invasions to the establishment of the Yuan Dynasty